Sick of lines? Bay Area DMV offices with the shortest — and longest — wait times

GALLERY: Department of Motor Vehicle offices in the Bay Area with the shortest — and longest — waits

Up first: Offices with the shortest waits

GALLERY: Department of Motor Vehicle offices in the Bay Area with the shortest — and longest — waits

Up first: Offices with the shortest waits

Photo: David McNew / Getty Images

Photo: David McNew / Getty Images

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GALLERY: Department of Motor Vehicle offices in the Bay Area with the shortest — and longest — waits

Up first: Offices with the shortest waits

GALLERY: Department of Motor Vehicle offices in the Bay Area with the shortest — and longest — waits

Up first: Offices with the shortest waits

Photo: David McNew / Getty Images

Bay Area DMV offices with the shortest wait times

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After a summer of outrageously long lines and cramped offices, the California Department of Motor Vehicles says wait times have finally eased across the state.

In a November report, the DMV said wait times across the state had reduced by 65-percent since July, which saw a statewide average wait time of 130 minutes for people visiting an office without an appointment.

Despite the improvement — the DMV attributes the faster service to a series of task forces, technological improvements and increased hiring — you'll still have to spend a good chunk of time waiting. How much time depends on which office you visit, though.

Wait times can vary widely from city to city, even within the same region. For example, the office with the shortest reported wait time in October was Oakland Claremont. Without appointments, people spent an average of 27 minutes waiting to be served. Just a 20 minute drive away is the San Francisco DMV office, where the average wait time for those without appointments was 84 minutes in October — the fourth-highest time for DMV offices in the state.

We've compiled the Bay Area DMV offices with the shortest and longest wait times, based off the DMV's November report, in the above gallery so you know what you're getting into next time you need a license renewal or a driving test.

Though Bay Area offices are cramped, Southern California has it worse. Excluding San Francisco, the 20 offices with the longest wait times are located in the southern portion of the state. El Monte, 20 miles east of Los Angeles, has the longest waits, with people sitting around for an average of 127 minutes last month. The shortest waits can be found in Alturas, near the Modoc National Forest in Northern California. With or without an appointment, most people waited only two minutes to be served.

Line for the State Department of Motor Vehicles seen on Thursday, July 5, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.

Line for the State Department of Motor Vehicles seen on Thursday, July 5, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.

Sick of lines? Bay Area DMV offices with the shortest — and longest — wait times

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Across the board, going to the DMV with an appointment slashed the wait time by at least half — with an appointment at the Walnut Creek DMV, the wait is only nine minutes, down from 61. Nonetheless, securing an appointment can require months of waiting, too.

Last year, SFGATE dug through the data and uncovered some foolproof ways to trim minutes off your wait time. You can see our tips and tricks in the second gallery from the top.